"If you're lucky," Delta Airlines entices travellers on its Ghana destination page, "you might even find yourself in the company of monkeys and rare birds".

But not, in all likelihood, giraffes. Delta learnt that lesson the hard way when it posted a tweet celebrating the US's 2-1 win over Ghana at the World Cup on Monday.

Visually representing the US with the Statue of Liberty is standard fare. But choosing a giraffe to symbolise the west African republic of Ghana raised the eyebrows above more discerning eyes.

Nice try: Delta Airlines' patriotic tweet backfired when it was pointed out giraffes don't live in Ghana. Photo: Twitter

The photo selection was problematic because giraffes don't actually live in Ghana. They are typically found further east, between Chad and South Africa, although some species were known to live in parts of Nigeria. While there is no guarantee that no giraffe has ever entered Ghana, even a travel website promoting the country admits: they don't live there.

The post set off a flurry of condemnation from people who saw the Delta tweet as an insidious form of racism.

While some Twitter commenters promised to never fly with the airline again, others felt critics were being too sensitive.

"I hope you realise saying things are racist when they are not is not helpful to those who are actually victims of racism," one user posted.

I'm guessing that when you book a flight to any of Nigeria or Kenya or the Ivory Coast or Ghana, @Delta tickets just say 'Africa, whatever'

But for Adelaide-based football writer Andy Cussen, the 'giraffe-gate' demonstrated classic ignorance.

"It's racial stereotyping which is a form of racism. Sorry if people are offended by people being offended," he wrote.

Delta Airlines later deleted and apologised for its "precious tweet", before deleting that apologising instead for its "previous tweet". All things considered: a day its social media manager will try to forget.

We're sorry for our choice of photo in our previous tweet. Best of luck to all teams.